Prevalence of Risk factors for non-communicable chronic disease in Shaanxi province of China

Abstract Background Risk factors including both behavioral risk factors (BRFs) and biological risk factors contribute majorly to the development of non-communicable chronic diseases. We aimed to explore the covariation, cluster and distribution of risk behaviors in Shaanxi province of China. Methods Multistage clustering sampling was adopted to select participants for the survey. We obtained the data and investigate the prevalence and clustering pattern (mean number of risk factors) of eight risk factors for non-communicable chronic diseases, including four behavioral risk factors (smoking, drinking, consumption of fruit and vegetables, physical activity) and four biological risk factors (overweight and obesity, raised blood pressure, raised fasting blood glucose and raised total serum cholesterol). Ordinal logistic regression was conducted to investigate the independent demographic and socioeconomic covariates of clustering of the eight risk factors. Results The prevalence of eight risk factors in Shaanxi province were found: insufficient fruit and vegetable intake,59.82%; overweight and obesity, 46.82%; raised blood pressure, 30.88%; current smoking, 28.21%; physical inactivity, 24.63%; raised total serum cholesterol, 20.96%; raised blood glucose, 4.27% and harmful use of alcohol, 2.16%. 64.73% of the Chinese in Shaanxi province had two or more risk factors. Being a male, old, living in rural areas, having a lower education level and being separated, divorced or widowed all tends to have more risk factors. Conclusion There is a high prevalence of risk factors for non-communicable chronic diseases among residents in Shaanxi province of China. Public health interventions are needed to reduce these risk factors and ought to target those who are male, old, poorly educated and live in rural areas.